Protect your data: How to remove multiple apps at once on Facebook

- Finally!

Facebook has faced a lot of criticism as of late, so it's doubling down, trying to make things right.

It has laid out a three-step plan it is now following to ensure another Cambridge Analytica scandal won't happen again. People have now realised their personal data might as well be gold, and that everything from social networks and big companies to shady third parties and random apps want to harvest that data in order to tailor ads to you, manipulate your behavior, and sway your opinions on politics and more.

Let's be clear: if you put any personal information on Facebook, you can expect it to be harvested and used by Facebook. But, if you want to lock down what exactly can be collected from third parties, including apps, you should never grant access to your Facebook account. When you see a funny quiz or cute app you want to try, notice that it asks for permission to your Facebook account. That's how it harvests your data.

If you've already given permission to apps in the past, you can always revoke their access by removing them entirely. Keep in mind many sites and services, like Airbnb, for instance, use something called "Facebook Connect" so that you can easily login to them with your Facebook account. Those are generally safe, but if you remove them, you won't be able to login to them with Facebook going forward.

As for other apps, which you may not be using and may be unaware of how much of your data they are harvesting, you should remove those, immediately. Prior to Facebook's latest privacy initiative, you had to individually remove each one, which was tedious if you had granted access to hundreds of apps over the years. But now, you can bulk remove all those apps in one fell swoop. Here's what you do.

How to remove multiple apps at once on Facebook

You can see a list of all the apps that have access to your data via your Facebook's App Settings page. Previously, you had to hover over each app in question, then select the 'X' remove button, and confirm. Now, you can now bulk select all the apps by clicking in the box or circle next to the each app, whether you're on desktop or mobile, and then you can hit the remove button to remove every selected app at once.

Desktop users

Login to Facebook on your desktop.

From the drop-down menu at the top, go to Settings.

Select Apps.

At the top, you'll see all the apps logged into your Facebook.

Bulk select all the apps in question by clicking next to each one.

Hit the remove button at the top to remove every app you've selected at once.

Note: Alternatively, you can click the Pencil icon on each app to change its visibility ("only me" or "friends", etc) and adjust the info you provide to the app. There is no way to do this in bulk, unfortunately.

Mobile users

Oen the Facebook mobile app.

Go to your Settings page.

Select Account Settings.

Go to Apps.

Go to Logged in with Facebook.

Bulk select all the apps in question by tapping on them.

Hit the remove button at the top to remove every app you've selected at once.

Note: Alternatively, you can on each app and then change its visibility ("only me" or "friends", etc) to adjust the info you provide to the app. There is no way to do this in bulk, unfortunately.